Rhodesian poll in troop alert

Press, 17 April 1979, Page 1

Rhodesian poll in troop alert

PA Salisbury Controversial General Elections are taking place in Rhodesia this week for a black-dominated Parliament, which will end 88 years of white supremacy in the rebel British colony. The Government of the Premier (Mr lan Smith) has mobilised an estimated 100,000 troops to protect the polling which begins today and lasts for five days.

The elections are part of Mr Smith’s internal settlement proposals with local black leaders, which have failed to win backing from the international community and are bitterly opposed bv nationalist guerrillas fighting from bases in neighbouring Zambia and Mozambique.

The voting follows a week of fierce ground and air assaults on the guerrillas and their supplybases in Zambia and Mozambique. Pre-emptive attacks were also made on alleged guerrilla targets in Botswana and Angola. About 12.000 guerrillas are believed to be inside Rhodesia and the Patriotic Front joint leader, Mr Joshua Nkomo, said in Lusaka, the Zambian capital, on Sunday that his Zipra guerrillas, trained in the Soviet Union and Cuba, would soon begin using new advanced weapons.

Rhodesia’s military leader, Lieutenant-General Peter Walls, told Reuter by telephone on Sundaynight that the report did not surprise him. “All along, we have known the Russians are helping and equipping them,” he said. Government officials said

more than 70 unofficial international observers, some of whom had already arrived, would monitor the polling. The Rhodesians are providing them with bodyguards as they travel the cities and countryside, thus stretching even further the country’s security services.

Up to 300 international journalists are expected to chronicle the event. Those already in Salisbury were feted on Sunday night bv the Government which is anxious to show the elections as free and fair and worthy of world-wide support.

South Africa has lent planes and helicopters to Rhodesia to ferry the journalists and observers around the 2000 polling stations.

Mr Smith, pressed by an escalating war, signed a majority rule agreement with three Rhodesia-based black leaders, Bishop Abel Muzorewa, the Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole, and Chief Jeremiah Chirau, in March last year, which led to this week’s election for an estimated 140.000 white and 2.8 million black voters.

ihe Transitional Government is hoping for a high voter turn-out this week in order to show that it commands the support of the majority of Rhodesia’s peoples. Critics have questioned whether a democratic election could be held in the midst of what amounts to a civil war.

The election will be followed by a government of national unity in which whites, representing less than a twentieth of the population, will have a quarter share and day-to-

day control of the security forces, civil service and judiciary for five years. Bishop Muzorewa, strongly favoured to win the election, ended his campaign on Sundav on a triumphant note, jogging a lap of honour at a packed sports stadium in Umtali. The bishop, who was 54 on Saturday, left supporters and photographers behind as he trotted around wearing a red, green, yeU low and black striped tailcoat, to the cheers of more than 15,000 people. Bishop Muzorewa’s main challenger for the Premiership is his fellow member of the Transitional Executive Council, the Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole.

The third black council member, Chief Jeremiah Chirau, who is a member of the senate and president of the Zimbabwe United People’s Organisation (ZUPO), and the ZUPO rebel chief, Kavisa Ndiweni, who now heads the United National Federal Party (UNFP), are also contending.

The Government forces have reported a heavy toll of guerrillas in the last few weeks. Military headquarters announced a further 17 guerrillas killed in the last 24 hours for the loss of one Rhodesian soldier. Six collaborators and five other black civilians also died.

Nationalist guerrillas overnight attacked and set fire to an oil storage depot at Victoria, 300 km south of Salisbury, Rhodesia Radio said yesterday. The attack was the third against oil depots within six months launched hv guerrillas of the Patriotic Front movement.